Stories by Sushmita Pathak

What’s going on with the Ebola outbreak, how the World Cup is dealing with rising temperatures, and how becoming a father can change your brain

Neuroscientist Kauê M. Costa talks about surprising results that are changing how we think dopamine works and how the brain really learns

This young researcher’s unlikely journey into academia will change the way you think about science, failure and belonging

A linguist lays out what communicating with aliens could actually involve—and what that tells us about human language

A physician involved in the long push to change the name PCOS to PMOS takes us behind the scenes of this subtle yet consequential change

Author Jeremy Lent argues that human society runs on a flawed, exploitative worldview—and that embracing interconnectedness could enable a more sustainable future

How an experiment involving a made-up skin condition exposes the risks of increasingly popular AI medical advice

What you should know about hantavirus, why PCOS is getting a new name, and how some fish hide in an unusual spot

As peptide “stacking” takes over social media feeds, we separate the science from the hype of the Internet’s latest wellness obsession

Journalist Evan Ratliff explores what happens when AI agents are given real autonomy to build and run a start‑up from scratch

A look at what makes scorpions so deadly, why there’s hope for preeclampsia and how President Trump is gutting wind energy

Tracing how psychedelics have undergone a revival in the U.S. and what the White House’s new psychedelic push means for research

What NASA’s Curiosity Rover found on Mars, how youth suicides dropped after the launch of the 988 crisis line, and what people think of AI voice clones

This Earth Day three environmental experts share stories about times when environmental action succeeded in saving the planet—and explain why this can be done again

How a few unique traits helped modern-style birds—the last living dinosaurs—survive the asteroid apocalypse that took out T. rex and other mighty beasts

As Pokémon turns 30, we take a look at how the beloved Japanese kids’ franchise was inspired by—and has shaped—real-world science

Artemis II’s safe return from lunar orbit sparks a debate over the costs, climate effects and long‑term value of going back to the moon

An update on NASA’s historic moon mission, alarm over the low snowpack in the western U.S. and a move that could endanger wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico

Artemis II blasts off on a high‑stakes lunar flyby, marking NASA’s first crewed mission to the moon in decades

Humans are the only species that has chins. A recent study sheds light on how that came to be and why evolution doesn’t always follow the rules

An unseasonal heat dome over parts of the U.S., a federal court ruling that blocks the CDC’s recent change to its recommended childhood vaccine schedule, new research on unsafe levels of lead in fast fashion

“Imitation” drugs, unexpected benefits, serious pitfalls—here’s what comes next as GLP-1 medications continue to rise in popularity

How Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s ideas about public health—from vaccines to seed oils—are shaping Americans’ health

Why measles cases are rising in the U.S., how artificial intelligence is shaping warfare, and what accelerated global warming means for the world